Extra Credit

So Obama thinks that everyone but the entrepreneur is responsible for his success, with his comment the other day that “If you got [sic] a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Good to know that the corollary must be true, namely, that if your business fails (as many small businesses do), it must be somebody else’s fault, too. Can we blame Obama and the government for that, too? Or just Goldman Sachs and Wall Street?

And don’t forget last month’s “the private sector is doing fine.”

With the stimulus and everything else the government is doing for small business, times should be great, right? Somehow small business owners didn’t get the memo. The latest Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business, released July 10, shows small business owners turning more pessimistic. The chief economist for NFIB summarizes:

The Index of Small Business Optimism declined 3 points in June, falling to 91.4. The decline is significant, relinquished the gains achieved earlier this year and is a clear indication of slow growth. Only one of the 10 Index components improved, expected credit conditions. Nearly one-quarter of owners cite weak sales as their most important business problem (23%), followed by taxes (21%) and unreasonable regulations and red tape (19%). . . There was no good news in the June survey.

Meanwhile, don’t miss a terrific roundup of smackdowns of this idiocy by our friends over at AmericanThinker.com.